Picture credit, The Telegraph
2014 has been a whirlwind! Scotland decided against the divorce, Britain bagged a few medals in Sochi, the world froze at the very real threat of a lethal virus, people got away with murder, and Kim Kardashian’s ass dominated, but didn’t quite break the Internet.
As a very eventful year draws to a close, we present JAM’s most memorable moments of 2014, happy, sad and indifferent:
Team GB strikes GOLD! (7-23 February 2014)
Lizzy Yarnold sped her way to gold at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, securing the skeleton title for team GB, and notching up 10 gold medals for Britain in Winter Games history.
The men’s Curling team maneuvered their way to silver, whilst the women’s Curling team swept in with bronze. Snowboarder Jenny Jones slope-styled her way to bronze, becoming the first Briton to win a medal at a Winter Games on snow rather than ice.
Ebola (March – ongoing)
The deadliest episode of Ebola, since its discovery in 1976, struck West Africa in March this year. Spreading into other areas of the world, the virus claimed the lives of nearly 7,000 people and to date has infected over 18,000.
Fated Malaysia Airlines (8th March & 17th July 2014)
It has been a devastating year for Malaysia Airlines, with two flights failing to reach their destinations, and heartbreakingly, 522 people losing their lives. On the 8th March 2014, Flight MH370 mysteriously disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. Despite an intensive search mission, no trace of the plane has been found.
On 17th July 2014, Flight MH17 travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in eastern Ukraine, close to the border with Russia, taking the lives of all 298 passengers. According to the BBC, Western nations said there was growing evidence that the plane was hit by a Russian-supplied missile, fired by rebels. Russia blamed Ukrainian government forces.
Kimye Tie The Knot (24th May 2014)
Just a reminder in case you forgot, or missed any of the squillion pictures or Tweets about it. Internet still 100% ok, though.
Other Famous Faces Got Hitched…finally
Brangelina finally did the deed after years of anticipation – talk about playing it cool guys! While Amal Alamuddin, respected human rights lawyer, married dashing Hollywood actor, George Clooney.
The 2014 FIFA World Cup, Brazil (12th June – 13th July 2014)
Group D for Disgrace. Not one game won by England, putting us on the bench in the first group stages. A consistently solid performance from Germany saw them lifting the coveted trophy. It wasn’t all bad though, as we did get to chant along to the charity football anthem created by The Printworks, ‘Our Telly’s Bigger Than Your Telly!’, which received over 18,000 YouTube views.
#IceBucketChallenge (Summer 2014)
The #IceBucketChallenge swept across social media this summer, prompting the brave to drench themselves in icy water in the name of charity, before nominating a friend to follow suit. The campaign raised more than £48 million for UK charity the Motor Neurone Disease Association and its American counterpart, the ALS Association.
We Jammers braced ourselves and took the icy plunge for the MND Association, resulting in a hilarious video. Brrr!
Naked Celebrity Images Leaked (August 2014)
Intimate images of Jennifer Lawrence and a wealth of other famous faces (and, erm, bodies) were leaked online, having been retrieved due to an iCloud leak. There was outrage among A-listers and mere mortals alike.
The Centenary of the First World War (5th August – 11th November 2014)
Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, an installation of 888,246 ceramic poppies, created by artists Paul Cummins and Tom Piper, flooded the moat of the Tower of London marking the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. Poor Paul lost a finger while working on the commemorative installation.
Famous Faces We’ll Miss
Too many wonderful people left us this year, but the one that shocked and saddened us the most was the legend that was Robin Williams.
“You’re only given one little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.” Robin Williams, July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014. Nanu Nanu.
Other lost legends:
– Philip Seymour Hoffman
– Oscar de la Renta
– Maya Angelou
– Joan Rivers
– Richard Attenborough
– Lauren Bacall
– L’Wren Scott
– Bob Hopkins
– Peaches Geldof
Royal Baby Number Two (8th September 2014)
We were delighted when Kate and Wills (yes, we pretend we know them personally) announced they were expecting their second child. Prince George is such a cutie pie, so we can but imagine how gorgeous his little brother or sister will be. Congrats!
Oscar Pistorius (12th September 2014)
On 12 September 2014, the Paralympic champion was found not guilty of the murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp but guilty of manslaughter. He was sentenced to five years in jail.
Scottish Referendum (18th September 2014)
“They may take our votes, but they’ll never take our parliament!”. Well, no, but we aren’t getting divorced just yet. The Scots spoke and Scotland remains part of the UK and we’re very happy about it too.
Chasing Rosetta (12th November 2014)
We watched in anticipation as the unmanned space probe, Rosetta, orbited around comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, in an attempt at the first-ever landing on a comet’s surface. After 10 years of travelling through space, Rosetta successfully touched down, only to land in partial darkness in a crater causing the battery power to fade. Typical!
#Selfie (December 2014)
The word selfie was the most Tweeted term of 2014, according to Twitter, mentioned over 92 million times.
Sports Personality of the Year (14th December 2014)
Well-done Lewis Hamilton! He raced ahead (sorry) to secure 209,920 of the 620,932 votes.
And finally…
LUKATAR!
From all at JAM, we wish you all a very merry Christmas and a successful 2015.
